Expert: Tom Whiting - 8/28/2010

Question
I have the same problem as questioner below!


bought this at an auction to get my grandsons interested in something other than video or TV. I didn't check it out thoroughly until I got it home and then  I found it had no lens in the eyepiece. It is approximately 1" in diameter and has 2 side screws, I guess to hold in the lens, my question is " can I get a replacement, from where, what do I ask for, or do I just throw the whole thing out as a bad bargain? Would be grateful if you could help. thanks  Larry


Answer
Hi Larry,
At only one inch in diameter, why bother to mess with it?  Get the grandson a pair of 10 x 50 (mm) (or 2 INCHES of glass) binoculars instead, for a K-mart blue light special around $40. Bushnell is a preferred trade name. (I still have mine)... also get him a decent star chart; (Cambridge 2000.0 or Norton's Star Atlas and Reference Handbook) for around $30.  Hey, they are both good until 2050, that's only a dollar a year, cost averaging.
Because your first task in our hobby is to learn the naked eye night
sky... self-teach yourself at night... for if you can't point your finger to the Andromeda galaxy,the Lagoon Nebula, the beehive star cluster, the Pleiades, Saturn and Jupiter (ALL naked eye objects in a dark sky)... how are you going to point a small field of view telescope to them?  You can't.
There are thousands of those small diameter "telescopes" in garage
sales and flea markets around the world,  made by Jason, Tasco, J C Penney, Sears, and others for a song... Why? Because they don't work, that's why.  Most are only good on the moon, boats in the lake, and that's about it.  Also suggest, if he's REALLY interested in observational astronomy, punch up our club website, and read Tom Whiting's Sound Advice to the Novice, at
http://www.velocity.net/~bwhiting
Good Luck,
Clear Skies,
Tom Whiting, Pres. ECMOG
Erie, PA